Ran Abramitzky is professor of economics and the Senior Associate Dean for the Social Sciences at Stanford University, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a former co-editor of Explorations in Economic History. Weaving his family story together with extensive economic and historical data, Abramitzky’s prize-winning book, The Mystery of the Kibbutz examines how communities based on income equality survived in Israel for over a century, and the conditions under which more equal societies can thrive.

Leah Boustan is professor of economics and director of the Industrial Relations Section at Princeton University. She is also co-director of the Development of the American Economy Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and serves as co-editor of the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Her prize-winning scholarly book, Competition in the Promised Land, examines the effect of the Great Black Migration from the rural South during and after World War II. She has written for The New York Times, The American Prospect, and Slate.

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"Through this authoritative account of the historical record and important new findings, Abramitzky and Boustan will help shape our thinking and policies about the fraught topic of immigration with findings such as: ]Where you come from doesn't matter. The children of immigrants from El Salvador, Mexico, and Guatemala today are as likely to be as successful as the children of immigrants from Great Britain and Norway 150 years ago. ]Children of immigrants do better economically than children of those born in the U.S. - a pattern that has held for more than a century. ]The children of immigrants from nearly every country, especially children of poor immigrants, are more upwardly mobile than the children of US-born residents. ]Immigrants today, especially those from groups accused of lack of assimilation (such as Mexicans and those from Muslim countries) actually assimilate fastest. ]Immigration changes the economy in unexpected positive ways and staves off the economic decline that is the consequence of an aging population. ]Closing the door to immigrants harms the economic prospects of the U.S. born, the people politicians are trying to protect. More, not less, immigration will spur the American economy. ]Severe restrictions on immigration reduces innovation by blocking entry to future scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs. Using powerful story-telling and unprecedented research employing big data and algorithms, Abramitzky and Boustan are like dedicated family genealogists but millions of times over. They provide a new take on American history with surprising results, especially how comparable the "golden era" of immigration is to today, and why many current policy proposals are so misguided"--

Résumé
The facts, not the fiction, of America's immigration experience